PURPOSE: The objective of this paper aimed to determine the impacts of rest breaks and stretching exercises on low back pain (LBP) in commercial truck drivers.
METHODS: This quasi-experiment was carried out on 92 truck drivers suffering from chronic LBP. Subjects were categorized into 3 groups (stretching exercises and rest breaks, rest breaks only, and reference). Pain severity and related disability were measured at the beginning of the survey and after 6 and 12 weeks. The latter was assessed using the Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire (OLBPDQ) and the Roland Morris questionnaire (RMQ).
RESULTS: At the end of intervention, the mean pain scores in 3 groups were 2.72 ± 1.44, 4.11 ± 0.86 and 4.90 ± 1.31 respectively (p<0.001). The OLBPDQ scores in group 1 (stretches and resting time breaks) were significantly lower than group 2 (rest break) (p = 0.009). The RMQ scores showed a significant reduction in group 1 compared the other two groups (p = 0.001). Drivers in group 2 improved more significantly than group 3 regarding visual analogue scale (VAS) pain score (p = 0.049), OLBPDQ score (p = 0.024) and RMQ (p = 0.011).
CONCLUSION: This study provided converging results that supplementary exercises during break periods consistently help to minimize LBP and disability.
Language: en
Keywords
Commercial drivers; low back pain; resting time break; stretching exercises